PAUSE 4 THOUGHT

Pause 4 Thought

6 September 2019

What’s Strong not What’s Wrong

A very warm welcome to you all – particularly to those families joining us this term. I hope you all had a restful and rejuvenating holidays and took the opportunity to have some ‘time out’ from the busy-ness of life. Ask your daughter about the importance of taking time to ‘sharpen your axe’…..

As before at The Junior School, we will be considering and exploring different values during the year. The intention is not to prescribe a ‘right’ way to do or to be, but rather to encourage all members of our community to become self-aware and informed people, who act consciously and with positive intent. We live in an exciting time, in a world offering huge opportunities. At the same time, change is constant and rapid, and there are many challenges facing us. The goal for our girls and for ourselves, as individuals and collectively, is to flourish, to achieve and to live lives of meaning in the coming years.

In our start of year assembly yesterday I discussed with the girls the concept of character strengths – the good things about each of us that reflect our personal identity and behaviour. They are the ingredients for living and learning. Our character strengths produce positive outcomes for ourselves and others and contribute to the collective good. Dr Martin Seligman at Penn State University has lead research over the last two decades to identify 24 character strengths that make up what’s best about our personality. Every individual possesses all 24 character strengths in different degrees, giving each of us a unique character profile. When you know your strengths, you can improve your life and thrive. Research reveals that people who use their strengths a lot are much more likely to be flourishing than those who are unaware of or do not use their strengths.

We practised spotting strengths by looking at some fictional characters – Alice in Wonderland (Curiosity), Hermione Granger (Leadership, Love of learning), Donkey from Shrek (Humour), Anna from Frozen (Love). Then we shared examples of how we’d used various strengths during the summer holidays. If you use your strengths, and you recognise others’, then you can do great things – many of the girls demonstrated this last year during our Class Challenge for Change, in which they made a positive difference whether in school or beyond.

I hope that the girls will continue to develop their sense of agency and their confidence to take action. We closed our assembly with a short film which demonstrates this, and exemplifies many character strengths, including creativity, barvery, perseverance, teamwork and zest.

I wish you and your daughters a fulfilling year and look forward to seeing you at our various events this term. Thank you for all that you do to support your daughter and the School.

Have a good weekend.

Mrs D-C

SHARE ON